Change, Change, Change

Having just seen a penny on the sidewalk, I've decided that the smallest U.S. coin is now an anachronism that should be relegated to the past.



It Adds Up
Don't get me wrong, Thaddeus and I collect our pocket change in an antique copper spittoon, and when it recently got filled to the brim, Thaddeus was able to go to our local TD Bank and get it changed into over $800 in currency.

However, it would seem that the value of the U.S. penny is currently so little, that the reasons to not carry them seem to far outweigh the reasons for keeping them in circulation. For instance, if I had decided to pick up the sidewalk penny from this morning's walk to work, the risk of disease or sickness alone seems to make the poor penny better off left on the sidewalk.

Suffice it to say, that poor little penny was left where it was.

Current Knitting
I finished the first Woolcott/MKR sock (except for the toe-grafting.





I modified the MKR sock pattern slightly to make the cuff a 1x1 ribbing instead of 2x2, and I used contrasting colored yarn on the top of the cuff and on the heel, which isn't called for in the pattern (just the toe).

Since I plan on knitting a total of three pairs of socks with this yarn and pattern, I figured this was a speedy start for the first one. At this pace, I'll have three pairs in three weeks.

Current Spinning
I plied up the Mohair/Merino yarn from the Puff-The-Magic-Rabbit roving, and liked working with it so much, that I ordered over a pound and a half of Mindy's Mohair/Shetland blend and she sent a couple of lovely bonus balls of roving with the order.

Here is the finished Mohair/Merino yarn.







Here's the new roving.





And the bonus balls.



I think I just need to put Mindy's goats on retainer so I can assure a constant supply of this loveliness.

Readers' Comments/Questions
John writes, "Queer Joe knitting a sock from the top down?? Say it ain't so..."

I consider myself to be "bi" when it comes to knitting direction on socks (bi-directional). I have no issue knitting toe-up or cuff-down...I like them both for different reasons.

Just Not Feeling It

Is it the pattern stitch? Is it the colors? Is it the fabric? Is it the weather? Or is it just how I'm feeling at the moment?

Whatever It Is...
...I'm just not enjoying the progress on the Impressions pullover vest. It's just not one of those projects that I look forward to running home and working on each night. I'll continue to work on it, and I will definitely finish it, but I got distracted with a delivery of yarn this past Saturday.



Sean at Woolcott & Co. is hand-dyeing sock yarn and selling it in his store. It's not on the web site linked above, you just have to know about it and call him to order it.

I loved the colors he chose, so I bought one of each and I've already cast on for my first of three pairs of Woolcott socks.





You'll note I accented the top of the sock with a contrasting color. I will use the same color for the heels and toe of this pair. I figure I will mix and match all three colors eventually.

Current Spinning
After finishing the singles of Mohair/Merino blend from Mindy at Puff The Magic Rabbit, I was considering wrapping them around a two-ply tussah/cashmere blend that I started working on back in January of 2008, but never finished. I set my mind to finishing it so I could get this lovely yarn combination done.

When I finished plying the tussah/cashmere, I experimented with adding the mohair, but it wasn't working well, so I just decided to leave the tussah/cashmere as a double-ply yarn and I'll double-ply the mohair/merino later.









Just as a side note, I love how this yarn turned out. I was able to keep the colors separated in such a way that I used up all the fiber. I ended up with a little over 400 yards of beautiful yarn, plus I'll get an additional amount of beautifula mohair/merino when I ply that.

Time For An Attitude Adjustment

I know when I've gotten to the point where I'm spewing bitter, hateful comments, and the entire World is annoying me, that it's not the entire World that has to change, but me.

What's the Male Equivalent of PMS?
I feel like I should be getting my period any minute now...sheesh.

I can't even blame my foul mood on that fact that I'm bloated or having cramps. So, of course, that only leaves putting the blame on the people I come into contact with (or god forbid, take personal responsibility!).

Anyway...I'd love to sit and whine for another couple of hours, but I have a boatload of work I need to get done now.

Current Knitting
I think I've completed a total of 5 rows on the latest pullover vest project. Life has been keeping me pretty busy lately during the week.

Current Spinning
I have however, been able to fit in some spinning to keep at least some viable content ready for a blog post.



This is the Merino/Mohair from Puff The Magic Rabbit. The singles came out just beautifully. I really enjoyed spinning this, and I'm working on finishing up a previous spinning project that I think I'll combine with this one. I have some gorgeous tussah silk on my Louet wheel that I'm thinking about double plying with itself and using the Merino/Mohair for a wrapped strand around it.

Not really sure it will work, but I'll experiment with it this weekend.

Readers' Comments/Questions
JJ writes, "I don't think there are enough Nico photos on this blog. How is his asthma? Did his Aerokat inhaler arrive?"

Nico is somewhat like Thaddeus, in that he hates his picture taken, and the few opportunities I have to take one, he refuses to let me publish it. However, Nico is doing great healthwise. After his holiday vetinary hospital visit, the prednisone and Albuterol seemed to stop his asthma symptoms almost right away. Unfortunately, he also contracted some kind of cold or flu whilst at said hospital which actually made hims sneeze and blow feline snot for about 5 days.

Thaddeus and our local vet decided that we should finish up Nico's regimen of low-dose prednisone (taken orally) and see if the asthma symptoms came back. Since they didn't we've decided to just treat any asthma on an episodic basis, and if they become frequent enough, put him on a daily low-dose of inhaled prednisone.

The Aerokat did arrive and we now have Albuterol on hand if/when he has another attack.

Here's another picture of Nico next to one of his favorite things...food.

Not Overly Productive Weekend

I wasn't exactly sick this weekend, but I wasn't exactly healthy either...I think I had a low-grade temperature with some body aches, and I was very tired...but no other symptoms.

No Ooomph
I did sleep a lot this weekend, and I even had a healthy appetite, so I ate fine, but knitting held very little interest. While I do have a picture of the current sweater-in-progress below, I figured I better bring in the big guns to distract readers from the lack of knitting content.



Ohhh...look...Nico! My new camera has been able to catch a few good shots of him even.

Current Knitting
I got a few more repeats done and now the front is up to about 10 inches long so far.



This intarsia/Fair Isle combination of knitting seems a bit fiddly for me, especially when I have to strand unused color on the purl side of a row. I'm still glad to have chosen this way of doing it, but when I'm not in a knitting kind of mood, it takes a little more energy to get me to pick up my knitting on a project like this.